The Las Vegas Raiders will have all new leadership in 2022 after a 2021 that saw Jon Gruden resign in disgrace in the middle of the season and GM Mike Mayock get fired after a Wild Card round end to a tumultuous season.
With nine teams seeking out head coaches this offseason, the Raiders chose to move quickly and will look to a franchise many have turned to in the past for a new leadership model, hiring a new GM and head coach from the New England Patriots. Pats exec Dave Ziegler will be the next Raiders GM and he’ll bring with him offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to be the new head coach, per multiple reports.
The deal for new #Raiders coach Josh McDaniels is being finalized, sources say. A whole new leadership group for Las Vegas. https://t.co/UmBsESj8gS
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 30, 2022
Raiders and their new HC Josh McDaniels have home games next season vs., amongst others, New England and Indianapolis. https://t.co/7mCWTzAZH5
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 30, 2022
This will be McDaniels’ second stint as a head coach in the AFC West, as he was in Denver for just under two seasons, compiling an 11-17 record before being fired midway through the 2010 season. Now, 12 years later, the Raiders will hope that another decade under Bill Belichick (and a more established quarterback in place in Derek Carr) will yield better results for McDaniels as a head coach.
The hope from Las Vegas is that McDaniels can bring some stability and consistency to the offense, as Derek Carr enters his ninth season, coming off a prolific year with 4,804 passing yards and 23 touchdowns, but also 14 interceptions and Vegas’ red zone struggles were on full display in their Wild Card loss to Cincinnati.
The track record of former Patriots assistants as head coaches isn’t very strong and many teams have attempted to copy the “Patriot Way” to rather dismal results. Whether McDaniels and Ziegler can buck that trend and recognize the need to create something unique rather than trying to copy the blueprint from New England will be fascinating to watch, if nothing else.